The old guidelines for quality SEO don’t apply, more recent guidelines for quality content creation don’t even really apply anymore – so what’s a digital marketer to do? Obviously at Decisionaire we promote the value of interactive content marketing, but what if you’re not on board with that yet?

New Guidelines for Content Marketing (Non-Interactive Version)

Some will tell you that if you just plan ahead and think creatively, you can create content that is SEO-rich, high quality and highly-shareable all at once. To an extent that’s true, but don’t think of it as a deficiency in your content marketing game if you feel like you need to start by picking one of those objectives and focusing on it. It’s better to excel at one of those aspects than to be mediocre at all three. Where to start?

Generally, the consensus seems to be that making content quality your top priority is your best move, serving your audience first and serving your SEO master second (making content shareable doesn’t do much for your business if it isn’t connected to intent). Relatedly, you don’t need to be in every conversation on every communication channel. You do need to figure out where the best match is for your strengths and for your audience’s interests though, and get as close to the bullseye there as you can (e.g. do they view content primarily on a mobile device – that should inform article length and structure, are they active on Facebook or Instagram – that should inform how you share images and video, etc.).

Once you’ve found your audience and approach, you need to equip yourself up for success. A recent Copyblogger article about artificial constraints can help you set yourself up for continuous improvement in your content marketing activities; it touches on common content writer issues like burnout, discipline and redemption (for mediocre content).

New Guidelines for Content Marketing (Interactive Version)

Interactive content marketing is so effective because it offers each user/visitor value that speaks to their unique needs. Unless your content is so awful that it triggers warnings in the prospect that you don’t know what you’re talking about, users/visitors have an extremely hard time ignoring content that is personalized to them.